Sound effect machine



Feb. 13, 1940. a D 2,190,465

SOUND EFFECT MACHINE FiledSept. 4, 1936' 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 0 QQQQ BEE'EEE A INVENT OR.

JAM UEL EA DA lF? ATTORNEYS.

S. E. ADAIR SOUND EFFECT MACHINE Filed Sept. 4, 1936 nab.- 13, 1940.

4 Sheets-Sheet 2 26 J3 J4 2 J4 j /0 l E INVENTOR. JAMUEL E,ADA/P ATTORNEYS.

SOUND EFFECT MACHINE Filed Sept. 4, 1936 4 Sheets-Shet 3 L INVENTOR. JAMUEZ. EADA/F? BY F 5 i fi %5m% I ATTORNEYS.

Feb. 13, 1940. s. E. ADAlR SOUND EFFECT MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Sept. 4, 1936 INVENTOR. JAMUEL E. ADA/P ATTORNEYS.

rest of the program.

Patented Feb. 13, 1940 PATENT OFFICE SOUND EFFECT MACHINE Samuel E. Adair, Chicago, 111., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Bendix Radio Corporation,

Baltimore, Md., a corporation of Delaware Application September 4, 1936, Serial No. 99,430

2 Claims.

This invention relates to machines for producing various sound effects, for example in a radio studio or the like, and is illustrated as' Records of various sounds are much used in radio, the sounds being reproduced in the studio and picked up by the microphone along with the It is highly desirable to be able to vary the speed of the records while they are running, and heretofore this has usually been done by the rather unsatisfactory method of varying'the speedof the driving motor, bringing in inertia effects which produce a time lag. It is moreover desirable, if possible, to be able to produce sounds from several records at once, and to vary the speeds of the several records independently of each other, which cannot readily be done with the equipment heretofore used.

According to an important feature of the present invention the phonograph record is controlled, or preferably several such records are simultaneously but independently controlled, by manipulating change-speed means interposed in driving connections between a constant-speed motor and the record turntable or turntables. I prefer to arrange the motor and the driving connections in a cabinet which has the turntables on its top, with the necessary pickups arranged beside them, and which cabinet may also (if desired) contain the sound-reproducing means.

The illustrated change-speed means includes driving'wheels keyedto and movable axially of a motor-driven shaft arranged horizontally across and below a series of friction disks engaged by the driving wheels and which disks are arranged to drive the respective turntables. A novel linkage, further described below, is provided for shifting the driving wheels across the disks and thereby varying the speeds of the turntables instantaneously, and independently of each other. This linkage ,is preferably actuated by horizontal levers, one for each turntable, ex-

tending through one side of the cabinet, where U tables as well as two pickups at opposite ends of the series of turntables.

Other features of the invention, including the arrangement of a bank of control devices on a panel above and adjacent the above-described levers, and the mounting of the turntables and their drive mechanisms on a pivoted top for the cabinet to facilitate access to them, and other novel constructions and desirable particular arrangements, will be apparent from the following 10 description of the illustrative embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a front elevation of the machine;

Figure 2 is a similar elevation of the lower part of the machine, with the cabinet partly opened 15 to show the interior thereof;

Figure 3 is a partial front elevation with the top lifted to show the drive mechanism;

Figure 4 is a perspective View showing the rear of the machine; 2 0

Figure 5 is a plan view on an enlarged scale of the linkage for varying the speed of one turntable;

Figure 6 is a vertical section diametrically through one turntable and its drive mechanism; 25 and Figure '7 is a perspective view of a set of sound devices sometimes used with the machine.

The particular machine selected for illustra tion comprises a suitable cabinet I0, shown 30 mounted on rollers or the like 12 provided with suitable locking devices M to prevent movement of the cabinet when it has been brought to a desired position. The illustrated cabinet has four hinged doors l6, I8, 20, and 22, to facilitate 35 access to its interior. ,Preferably the top 24 of the cabinet is hinged at 26 (Figure 4) along its rear edge, and carries the record turntables and drive mechanism therefor hereinafter described, so that ready access thereto is provided as illus- 40 trated in Figure 3. The doors [6, I8, 20, and 22 are on the side of the cabinet where the operator stands when the machine is in use. A suitable music rack 28 supports a copy of the script the operator is following. If desired, the rack 45 28 may be provided with a light 30.

The machine is provided with turntables 32, for example three of them, for phonograph records of various sound effects that may be needed in putting on a radio program. Associated with 50 these turntables are pickups 34 arranged for engagement with records on the turntables 32.

Any desired kind of pickups and sound-reproducing means may be used; the pickups 34 are of the electric type, and are. all connected to a single amplifying unit 36 inside the cabinet In which operates a loud speaker 38 behind a grille 40 on the back of the cabinet. The doors [8 and 20, when opened as in Figure 2, afford ready access to the amplifier 36 and the loud speaker 38.

According to one feature of the invention, there is one more pickup 34 than there are turntables 32, and the pickups are so arranged that two of them can be operated by a record on any one of the turntables, thus making possible some novel and pleasing echo effects. There is a pickup between each two turntables, as well as one at each end of the series of turntables.

Each turntable 32 is driven by a vertical shaft 42 (Figure 6) having a leaf-spring connection 44 to a connecting bar M which in turn has a leaf-spring connection @8 to a vertical shaft alined with shaft 52. Shafts E2 and 50 are journaled in bearings in a casting 52 secured to the lower face of the top 25 of the cabinet. The shaft 50 has secured to its lower end a friction disk 54 forming the driven member of a changespeed mechanism by which the turntable is variably driven by a constant-speed motor. The three friction disks 5d are substantially in the same plane.

A constant speed motor 55, arranged in an insulated compartment on the lower face of the top 2% of the cabinet, drives a horizontal shaft 53 journaled in hangers 6i"; and extending diametrically across the driven friction disks 5 3. On the shaft 58 are keyed three friction driving wheels 62, faced with rubber, engaging the lower faces of the disks 54 respectively, and which are movable radially of the '-disks 55 to vary their speed.

Each of the driving wheels 62 has a grooved collar for engagement by a yoke M pivoted to a horizontal operating lever extending through a slot 63 to a convenient position where it can be grasped by the operator. Each lever 66, at its inner end, has rigid therewith a cross-bar 'Hl, pivoted at its oppositeends to oppositely-inclined links 12 pivoted adjacent the shaft 58 to the hangers 60. This shifts the effective fulcrum of the lever 56 to give the effect of a lever several times as long, without sacrificing compactness, and at the same time insures a substantially straight-line motion to the yoke M.

It will be noted that the three levers 66 are grouped in a very accessible location relatively to an operator watching a script on the music rack 28.

The top 24 of the cabinet M3 is provided, across the side nearest the operator, with a panel or instrument board l6. Various controls and instruments and switches it for the amplifier 36 and its associated circuits are arranged in the central portion of the panel. The left-hand part of the panel may be reserved for control valves for various compressed-air operated devices (not shown) such as trainwhistles and thelike, which are placed wherever desired around the studio, with flexible conduits connecting them to the valves 80.

A microphone outlet SI and g switch 83 are so connected that three positions of the switch give the effect of rural telephone,

city telephone and ordinary voice.

The right-hand portion of the panel 16 is taken up by controls 82 for electric sockets 84 on a panel 86 behind the door' Hi. variouselectrical sound devices 88 (Figure '7), one of which is shown as containing a bell 90, are made up in units adapted to be placed wherever desired around the studio, and which are provided with sockets 92 for attachment to extension cords plugged into the sockets 84. "The compressedair and electrical device units 88 are stored in g the cabinet Ill when not in use.

It will be seen that this brings all of the soundeffect equipment in the studio within easy controlling distance of a single operator, and that he can instantaneously and independently vary the speeds of three records (one of which may cooperate with two pickups to give an echo ef-,

cally across said disk, a driving wheel keyed to and axialiy movable on the motor-driven shaft and frictionally engaging the disk, and means for shifting the driving Wheel across said disk to vary the speed of the turntable while it is running, said means including a lever connected to the driving wheel and having at one end a cross bar rigidly connected thereto and which bar is pivoted at opposite ends to inclinedlinks pivotally fulcrumedadjacent the motor-driven shaft at opposite sides of the friction disk.

2. In a sound effect machine having a record supporting turntable, drive means comprising a friction disc connected to the turntable, a driven shaft extending across said disc, a driving wheel keyed to and axially movable on the shaft and frictionally engaging the disc, and means for shifting the driving wheel across the disc to vary the speed of the turntable, said means including a lever connected to the driving wheel and having at one end a cross bar rigidly connected thereto and which bar is pivoted at opposite ends to links pivotally fulcrumed adjacent the shaft at r opposite sides of the friction disc.

SAMUEL E. ADAIR. 

